The Heat and the Shine

The most underrated match in wrestling history; to my eyes, at least, is Randy "Macho King" Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII.  Everything about it -- the build, the match and the resolution -- worked. The Build: Warrior was WWF Champion and Sensational "Queen" Sherry, at the time Macho's valet,  demanded a title shot .  Warrior declined.  Savage then got Sgt. Slaughter -- Warrior's title challenger at the 1991 Royal Rumble -- to agree to make Savage the number one contender if Slaughter won.  Savage interfered multiple times on Slaughter's behalf, eventually causing Warrior to lose the title after a scepter shot to the noggin. The Match: Art Barr & Eddy Guererro vs. El Hijo del Santo & Octagon  often gets cited as the greatest match in the illustrious history of the Los Angeles Sports Arena, but I'll take Warrior vs. Savage at WM VII.  Both had huge stakes.  Barr & Eddy lost their hair in a match where Santo &

Ed. note:  Garrett Gonlazes of  FightGame Blog  pointed out that White was probably referring to Holly Holm's management, not Ronda Rousey.  The column has been amended to reflect the mistake. After looking at Dana White’s recent Twitter replies, one has to wonder whether all is well between UFC’s President and it’s biggest media darling, Ronda Rousey. Several weeks ago, White stated in an interview that he and the rest of UFC’s management should “lose our promoters license” if UFC Women’s Champion Holly Holm’s next fight was anything but an immediate rematch with Rousey. This week on Twitter, Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter broke the news that Holly Holm’s first title defense would be against Meisha Tate. White didn’t ignore questions about the disconnect between his previous statements and Botter’s report.  When asked on Twitter why Holm vs. Tate was happening before Holm vs. Rousey II, White replied, “you can’t fix stupid”. “Stupid” is the type of name that starts fig

Critics of UFC's decision to sign CM Punk are in an unassailable position.  They are right.  Signing CM Punk would be similar to a Major League Baseball team signing Nelly.  Punk's signing does alienate fighters; especially those on the border of UFC and the lessor fight promotions.  The move is -- at least in part -- a publicity stunt.  There is no way to counter these arguments.  Calling Punk's ESPN "car wash" a PR win is pointless to someone who wants to watch great fights.  Supposing that Punk's first pay-per-view will draw a great buyrate matters not to someone who's had to argue whether MMA is a real sport.  UFC decision makers have hurt the public's ability to accept MMA as a sport.  The detractors have that argument won. All is not lost, however.  UFC and CM Punk can still make the best of things.  They can still make a lot of money in the short term (the short-term money argument, of course, is the argument that proponents of Punk's signin

Far be it from Milwaukee's second Ben (yours truly) to give advice to Milwaukee's first, but if Ben Askren is not in the MGM Grand Garden Arena for UFC 167 on Saturday night, then DeWayne Zinkin should be brought up on charges of managerial malpractice. UFC is in a down period.  Talk about oversaturation or Fox Sports 1 or concussions all you want, but the reality is that the sport is cold because the big fights aren't as big.  The stars are less shiny.  The fights are less interesting.  Fans can get excited when Nick Diaz goes crazy, but crazy only goes so far.  UFC needs a matchup that is compelling. What is so compelling about Georges St. Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks?  That Hendricks might land a big punch?  That GSP might pound the tar out of him for twenty-five minutes?  Big whoop.  UFC has sold us that fight a hundred times.  Maybe it would matter if GSP was the heel we wanted to see vanquished.  But he isn't and it doesn't. What does matter is Ben Askren